PHP Inheritance Task

Sure! Let’s create a simple PHP inheritance task to demonstrate the concept of inheritance in object-oriented programming.

Task: Create a base class called Animal and two derived classes Dog and Cat. The Animal class should have a property called name and a method called makeSound(). The makeSound() method should be overridden in the Dog and Cat classes to produce different sounds for each animal.

Here’s how you can implement the task:

<?php
// Base class
class Animal {
    protected $name;

    // Constructor to set the name of the animal
    public function __construct($name) {
        $this->name = $name;
    }

    // Method to make a generic sound (to be overridden in derived classes)
    public function makeSound() {
        echo "Generic animal sound!\n";
    }
}

// Derived class Dog
class Dog extends Animal {
    public function __construct($name) {
        parent::__construct($name);
    }

    // Override the makeSound() method to produce a dog sound
    public function makeSound() {
        echo "Woof! Woof!\n";
    }
}

// Derived class Cat
class Cat extends Animal {
    public function __construct($name) {
        parent::__construct($name);
    }

    // Override the makeSound() method to produce a cat sound
    public function makeSound() {
        echo "Meow! Meow!\n";
    }
}

// Create instances of Dog and Cat
$dog = new Dog("Buddy");
$cat = new Cat("Whiskers");

// Call the makeSound() method of each animal
echo $dog->name . " says: ";
$dog->makeSound();

echo $cat->name . " says: ";
$cat->makeSound();
?>

Output:

Buddy says: Woof! Woof!
Whiskers says: Meow! Meow!

Explanation:

1. We define a base class Animal with a property $name and a method makeSound(). The makeSound() method is a generic method that can be overridden in derived classes.
2. We define two derived classes, Dog and Cat, that extend the Animal class. Each derived class has its own implementation of the makeSound() method.
3. In the Dog class, we override the makeSound() method to produce a dog sound (“Woof! Woof!”).
4. In the Cat class, we override the makeSound() method to produce a cat sound (“Meow! Meow!”).
5. We create instances of Dog and Cat, and then call the makeSound() method on each animal to hear their respective sounds.

Inheritance allows the Dog and Cat classes to inherit properties and methods from the Animal class, reducing code duplication and promoting code reusability.